Skin to Skin
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Regina volunteers at the NICU and melts when a baby is placed on her chest.


_**Based on an interview I watched, with a similar premise.**_

Robin knew his wife very well. He loved his wife with all his heart. He knew that she had a rough exterior, but saw how it melted whenever she was around kids. In a minute she could go from yelling to someone on her cell phone, to cuddling a baby with all the love in the world. It's why it broke his heart that they struggled so much to conceive. In the earlier days, he watched as she agonized over methods and temperatures, tracking her ovulation like a madwoman.

After three years of trying, they turned to adoption. They were open to any form of it, but ultimately the birth parents that selected their profile chose to keep it closed. Regina and Robin never even met them. One day, they went to the hospital and got to meet their son, Henry. He became the best part of their worlds. Their hearts felt full, but they also knew they weren't done.

3 years later, they turned to surrogacy. It was something they had thought about and saved for, for quite a bit. Their good friend Marian volunteered to help them. She wanted no kids of her own, but could see how much they wanted to make Henry a big brother. With the support of her wife, she carried their second child. Roland came into the world and once again, their hearts were filled with delight. Marian and Mulan stayed in their lives, being the fun aunts to the boys that they had always dreamed of being.

For 5 years, Robin and Regina were content with how things were. They chased their boys around, worked hard at their respective jobs and found time to make their marriage work. Robin thought occasionally about adding to their family, but he honestly wasn't sure if it was the right move. Regina never mentioned it either. She loved their sons and would roll her eyes at the question _"When are you going to try for a girl?"_

"Why do we need a girl?" She would ask Robin later on. "Even if we did try again, we could end up with a boy."

And she was right. It wasn't the gender of the child that would make their family complete. Still, he could tell that she wasn't completely closed to the idea of adding to their family.

Then Regina heard about a program at the hospital where people could volunteer to give skin to skin contact to babies in the NICU. Her step-sister Mary Margaret volunteered at Storybrooke General and had a pamphlet on the program. She explained that some of the infants didn't have family members to do skin to skin with. The more Regina looked at it, the more appealing it seemed. Skin to skin had been the one way she had been able to bond with her babies after they were born. It allowed her to give them a connection that they didn't have since they hadn't grown inside of her. There had been studies on what a benefit skin to skin did for babies and it broke her hear to think that some didn't have it.

So, she signed herself up.

"You're going to come home with a baby," Robin teased.

Regina rolled her eyes. "No, I'm not."

* * *

Regina followed the nurse down the line of incubators, trying not to think about how small the babies were. Henry had been on the bigger side when he was born. One of those chubby babies with expressive eyes. Roland had been a normal weight, with lots of dark hair. She had seen preemies before, but not so many at once.

The incubator they stopped at contained a baby of a relatively normal size, though she was much smaller than Henry or Roland had been. She had the standard hospital hat on her head and wore nothing but a diaper. The name card read "Margot".

Regina settled into the rocking chair next to the incubator and unbuttoned the flannel top she had worn for the occasion. The nurse lifted Margot out of the incubator and placed her onto Regina's chest. The sudden warm body against her chest caused a bit of a shock. Margot squirmed a bit and Regina placed her hand on the small of her back. She looked down at her shut eyes, letting out a tiny breath.

She was in trouble.

"How old is she?" She asked the nurse.

"3 weeks."

"And she…"

"Ward of the state."

The nurse left Regina to cuddle the baby. She peaked up the hat to see wisps of strawberry blonde hair. She smiled a bit at that, wondering if it would stick or turn completely red when the baby was grown up. Or perhaps it'd revert to a darker blonde.

"You are too cute," Regina mumbled, patting the baby's back. "I promised my husband I wasn't going to bring a baby home."

Margot's big blue eyes opened. Her tongue partially stuck out a bit, touching Regina's bare skin.

Regina sighed. "But I guess I wouldn't be able to take you home just yet, so I wouldn't have lied to him completely."

* * *

The next time Regina went to visit Margot, she brought Robin with her. He was doing his best not to say "I told you so".

He definitely didn't say it after he held the little baby and fell in love with her.

They talked about the logistics. They had donated all of their baby stuff to Mal and Ursula after they had theirs. The boys were both in elementary school. It'd be starting over, completely. They didn't know Margot's full story. It'd be starting completely over. Sleepless nights, dirty diapers, red tape and paperwork.

Two days later, they went to see her again. The following, they called social services to talk about the procedure.

Henry and Roland were ecstatic at the thought of a new baby sister. Regina and Robin tried to not get them too excited. There were still home studies to complete. They would have to foster her for a bit. Nothing would be finalized for quite awhile and there was a chance it would fall through.

Margot came to live with the Locksley-Mills family when she was 3 months old. Regina's office had been taken down and in its place was a pastel pink nursery. The boys fell in love with her as fast as Robin and Regina had, wanting to show her off to all of their friends. Roland didn't quite get why she couldn't play with him yet.

It was two years of late nights, lullabies and unknowns. A social worker visiting constantly to make sure that Margot was in a stable home. Regina and Robin loved watching the little girl go through each and every milestone, but they couldn't help but fear it might be the last. They had her for a long time, but they weren't her adoptive parents yet. She could be taken from them at a moment's notice.

And then shortly after a fox themed birthday party, they got the call. Margot had her first (and hopefully only) court date. She was going to become an official Locksley-Mills.

The court was filled with their friends, family and loved ones. Margot barely let Robin or Regina hold her as the judge tried to talk about the importance of found family, adoption and love. She just wanted to get down and play with the toys that she knew her mother had in her purse. Henry reached up and gave her one, to try to calm her down. Regina shot him a thankful smile.

Finally, the judge said it. "I hereby announce that Robin Locksley and Regina Mills are the parents of this child, Margot Olivia."

Robin and Regina tearfully kissed each other, before planting one on either side of Margot's cheeks. She finally managed to squirm out of her mother's arms and dash to her purse to swipe some more toys. Regina let out a watery laugh, leaning into her husband.

"Told you that you'd bring home a baby," Robin whispered.

Regina shook her head. "Last time I don't listen to you."


End file.
